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North West Regional Report: Just Go

"It was awesome when the arena got loud. I couldn’t see the clock anymore, so I was just going on the noise. I had to just go until I couldn’t go anymore." ~Kendall Burnham

Going into Day 2, only five points were separating the top four men, while only 12 points separated the top five women.

Ben Stoneberg entered Day 2 in second place, just one point behind Bryan Miller. Stoneberg says he felt good after Day 1 and likes that there are new names at the top of the Leaderboard. About Event 4, Stoneberg said, “If I can do what I do in the gym, it’ll be a good event.”

Rory Zambard was second on the Leaderboard for the North West women at the beginning of the day. Her approach to Event 4 was to take it “one rep at a time.” Emily Carothers, who was sitting atop the overall standings before Event 4 said she was "rested and ready to go."

The brutal 100s chipper separated the top athletes as only a few finished under the 25-minute time cap.

Team

Each member on the six-person team completed 30 reps each of four movements: wall balls, chest-to-bar pull-ups, one-legged squats and one-arm dumbbell snatches.

CrossFit Fort Vancouver showed dominance taking a definitive win (15:07) and moving further ahead of the pack for first place in the region overall. The Fort Vancouver team was clearly happy with their performance with big smiles and high fives all around. The team admitted they didn’t focus a lot on preparation for Event 4, and they didn't know the exact order they wanted to compete in. The order they ended up with was near perfect.

"This is a workout that you can't hide any glaring weaknesses, and if one person struggles, then it will hold up the whole team,” teammate Nathan Loren said after Fort Vancouver finished the event.

CrossFit Coeur d’Alene finished second (16:50). Coeur d’Alene was fueled by their huge, lively cheering section. Decked out in bright orange, they have a wookie as a team mascot, a man in a kilt and over 100 people in the stands.

“We are loud and proud,” said Coeur d’Alene spectator Tori Gray.

CrossFit Spokane Valley made their presence known in Event 4. Showing off their team of veteran Regional competitors, Spokane Valley solidified a third-place finish (18:02) in the event and maintained their third-place ranking overall.

“We are here to prove it again,” said Dan Staton, owner and team athlete.

Spokane Valley is looking to compete in Carson for the first time and strongly believes they have the goods to get there. They were happy to put some cushion on their current ranking.

Jet City took a fourth-place finish (18:19) and CrossFit X-Factor finished fifth (19:11) in the event. Jet City sits in second while Intensify Team A is in fifth overall.

No woman was able to complete the event in the 25-minute time cap in the North West, but that didn’t mean there weren’t strategies and sheer determination in the process of making it to the finish line.

Erin Gessford was first off the wall balls, sailed through the chest-to-bars and was first to the pistols in Heat 1. Her effort would tie her for fifth in the event.

Nadia Shatila was nearly last to finish her wall balls, but cranked through the chest- to-bars to be the first in Heat 2 to make it to the pistol mat.

But it was Samantha Snyder and Melissa Dixon, who moved nearly in sync through the dumbbell snatches to finish at the buzzer, one rep apart.

As friends, Snyder and Dixon had discussed before the event that if they found themselves side by side, they would just keep going.

“Because there is no quit in either of us.”

In the final heat, the women moved through the wall balls, with Zambard the first to the chest-to-bar pull-ups.

It was Lindsey Vaughan who broke away from the pack, as she was first to both the pistol mat and the dumbbell snatches. Zambard, Emily Carothers, Cheryl Brost and Kendall Burnham worked through the pistols, running close to each other and overtaking Vaughan, until Burnham began to pull away.

Burnham systematically burned through the snatches, advancing across the mat quickly and unbroken. She met the buzzer with only four reps remaining, 14 reps ahead of Emily Carothers and 16 ahead of Zambard and Ashleigh Moe who were tied for third.

Burnham summed up her strategy on the snatch with two words: “Just go.”

“I wanted to make up some time with the snatches and I wanted to try to beat the time cap. It was awesome when the arena got loud. I couldn’t see the clock anymore, so I was just going on the noise. I had to just go until I couldn’t go anymore,” she said.

The party continued into the afternoon as the men took the floor. Heat 3 saw the first athletes to finish the workout under the time cap, with Kaylor Hasbargen victoriously hitting the finish mat at 24:20, followed by Cole Sager at 24:35 and DJ Neyens at 24:46. Sam Lee and Apollo Lewis both dove for the mats as the timer buzzed at 25:00.

In the final heat, Dave Powell was the first to the pull-up bar, but it was Cody Anderson, winner of Event 3, who flew through the pull-ups and made it first to the pistols, followed closely by Stoneberg. Anderson and Stoneberg went nearly rep for rep through the pistols, with Stoneberg making it to the snatches in 12:00.

Stoneberg looked to be the clear leader, but Ryan Swobody methodically moved through the snatches, closing Stoneberg’s lead. With the crowd of CrossFit Marysville cheering him on, Swobody quickly snatched the weight off the mat. But he couldn’t quite catch up, and Stoneberg was first to finish at 22:13. Swobody followed at 23:03.

“When I got to the dumbbells, I knew I had to get through it,” Swobody said. “Bryan (Miller) was right behind me and I asked my crowd to get behind me and they did. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Bryan Miller, who entered the day in first place, also made up time with the snatches, quickly pulling the weight off the ground. Miller finished at 23:10, while Kevin Simons followed at 23:20.

Weeks ago, Lisa Long qualified for the 55-59 Division at the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games with a 16th place finish in the Open.
This weekend, her daugher Rory Long Zambard is competing for a seat in the individual division at the Games. So far, so good. After one day of competition, Rory sits in 2nd place overall at the North West Regional.

While struggling with the lunges on Event 6, a crowd gathered around Dave Powell. It was the other North West athletes cheering him on, encouraging him to keep going and finish the event.
"I think there's a respect for each and every one of us," Powell said. "We all hope to win, but going into the last day, I know I'm out. I can't make it in the top three, I'm trying to keep my ego alive. Without those guys, I wouldn't have finished."